HMS DRAGON, BRITISH BEACON and HMS DUNEDIN anchored off Garden Island
Photographer
Frederick Garner Wilkinson
(1901-1975)
Date1924
Object number00037701
NameGlass plate negative
MediumEmulsion on glass
DimensionsOverall: 82 x 103 mm, 2 mm, 0.04 kg
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionHMS DRAGON, the British tanker BRITISH BEACON and HMS DUNEDIN are depicted anchored off Garden Island, Sydney on 9 April 1924. This photograph was taken by Frederick Wilkinson while he was travelling on board a ferry to Watson’s Bay, Sydney.HistoryDuring 1923-1924 the British ship HMS HOOD with the Special Service Squadron made up the Empire Cruise, a world tour that stopped at many countries who fought and held allegiance with Britain in World War I. The tour started on 27 November 1923 and lasted until 28 September 1924. The public relations exercise was an attempt to express Britain's world sea power, particularly relevant in the aftermath of World War I.
HMS DRAGON was a Danae class cruiser of the Royal Navy launched in Glasgow in December 1917 and scuttled in July 1944 off the beaches of Normandy as part of the Arromanches Breakwater. Before World War II DRAGON carried HRH the Prince of Wales on a Royal tour to Canada; took part in the Russian civil war aiding independent Latvia and Estonia and was a member of the Special Service Squadron.
During World War II it was part of the Northern patrol against German U-boats; took part in Operation Menace against the French fleet; served as an escort ship for Atlantic convoys; and in 1942 was attached to a task force in the Yellow Sea. In January 1943 she was transferred to the Polish Navy for further convoy duties and then took part in Operation Neptune as part of the Normandy landings. It was torpedoed and eventually scuttled in 1944.
HMS DUNEDIN was a Danae class light cruiser of the Royal Navy commissioned at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 13 September 1919. In the decades prior to World War II DUNEDIN was attached to the New Zealand division of the Royal Navy. During the war it was used for searching out German battle cruisers and merchant ships as part of the Northern Patrol, then the West Indies Station and finally the South Atlantic Station.
On 24 November 1941 DUNEDIN was sunk after it was hit by torpedoes from the German U-boat (U-124) off the coast of Brazil. In total 419 men lost their lives; there were only 67 survivors.SignificanceThe print is part of the F G Wilkinson Photograph Collection, comprising more than 700 glass plate negatives of ships in Sydney Harbour between 1919 and 1936. The collection provides an extensive and well-documented coverage of the changing styles of shipping in the port of Sydney before the decline of the coastal trade. The backgrounds also reveal the changing face of the city and harbour foreshores.
